Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated each year on the fourth Thursday of November in USA and on the second Monday of October in Canada. It became official in eighteen sixty-three when the President Abraham Lincoln appointed it. The history began on september the sixth sixteen twenty, when the Pilgrims were fleeing religious persecution in their native England. So they decided to travel to the New World to board a ship called the Mayflower. They left from Plymouth in England. They were one hundred and ten passengers in the ship. The trip was cold and damp. Since there was the danger of fire on the wooden ship, the food had to be eaten cold. Many passengers became sick and one person died but someone gave birth to a child. They finally arrive on November the tenth (1620) in Plymouth wich had been named by Captain John Smith in sixteen fourteen. They decided to settle there because it offered an excellent harbor. The first winter was devastating for the Pilgrims. The cold and the snow were exceptionally heavy, interfering with the workers as they tried to construct their settlement
